In the area of power generation, governments and individuals are pursuing the development of electricity generated from the wind. This is partly due to increased awareness of the ecological impact modern societies exert on the environment, but also due to the increasing cost of traditional non-renewable energies. Typically, modern wind turbines used in large-scale installations consist of three long, narrow blades extending directly from a hub mounted on a tower located in wind farms that are some distance away from urban centres.
There is a growing interest in smaller-scale wind energy capture, which can be better suited to rural or urban applications. Wind turbines for such applications can be smaller, and can have discrete blades such as those described, for example, in Applicant's copending U.S. Published Application No. 2009/0104039, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference. The blades can be attached to a hub by an arm, or beam. See, for example, Applicant's co-pending U.S. Published Application No. 2009/0016887, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Both the large-scale and smaller-scale wind turbine designs face the conflicting challenges of requiring strength but not excessive weight in the blades. A longer blade provides a larger sweep area, but the blade also becomes heavier and thus subject to greater stresses, particularly at the hub of the wind turbine.